


a spoken word is not a sparrow

by PandaPaladin



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Linda Lee for Best Matchmaker, One Shot, let's just pretend linda survived for a while longer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 21:29:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20571203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PandaPaladin/pseuds/PandaPaladin
Summary: Linda agreed to help Kara confess her feelings to a certain friend. She'll just confess Kara's undying love for Lena, then they'll switch out, and Kara will get the girl. It was as easy as baking pie.Except Lena doesn't believe them.





	a spoken word is not a sparrow

**Author's Note:**

> It's missing Red Daughter hours so I wrote this to cope. My Russian friend, Ana, helped me translate the Russian words in this fic so thank you to her!!

“You want me to do _ what _ for you?”

Kara, her blubbering American counterpart, was grinning at her with nervously wringing hands. Linda only gawked, feeling as if her English was failing her. Which was impossible, really, but there was no way in an icy hell that Kara would—

“Please?” she begged, clasping her hands and shaking them in front of Linda’s eyes. They were sitting across from each other in armchairs, close enough to jostle each other’s knees, and close enough for Linda to honestly _ throttle _her. “Just for tonight? It’ll only take an hour at most.”

Linda sat back heavily, rubbing at the tension in between her eyes. Kara was still looking at her with puppy dog eyes, hands still clasped and bottom lip jutting in utter sorrow. Did she look like that whenever she was sad too?_ это непривлекательно— _ that's unattractive. 

“Let me try to get your story straight,” she finally said, her Kaznian accent thick as thieves. Kara perked up at her words. “You want me to see Lena Luthor.” At the sound of her name, Linda almost sighed in teenaged dreaminess. The way Kara smiled when she said it was almost comical, if she almost didn’t have the same actual reaction.

  
“Yep.”

“And then you want me to take her somewhere quiet.”

“Uh huh…” Kara was sitting on the edge of her seat, quite literally. 

“And you want me to—” She tried to fish out the words from her brain. She jabbed her tongue against the warm inside of her cheek, tapping the side of her face with a finger. “You want me to tell her that you like her? As more than… friends?”

“Yes!” Kara looked almost relieved, as if she wasn’t expecting Linda to get it the first time. Linda bit down on her tongue. “Can you do it? Please?”

To say that Linda was baffled was an understatement. “Why can’t you do it?” she said, taking note of the wrinkle in Kara’s nose. She opted to ignore it. “I feel as if it would be more genuine coming from you than your clone. Lena might not even believe it was me— or rather, you.”

“Are you joking? I’ve seen your impressions of me before,” Kara told her, eyebrows shot high. She unclasped her hands and laid back, continuing with, “You had an honest to Rao _ shrine _to my name, and you’ve seen how much time I spend with Lena. Acting like me won’t be a problem, neither will be looking like me, because, um…” She waved a hand in the air a little awkwardly, then adjusted her glasses on her nose. 

Linda arched an eyebrow. “You didn’t answer the majority of my questions.”

“Oh, I didn't?” Kara laughed at her own non-comedic joke. It felt forced, and Linda almost felt bad for the girl. Just almost. “I— no, well, I didn’t hear the question, I think. So can you help me?”

“Not until you answer me. Truthfully,” she said in distaste, uncrossing her legs to lean forward in her chair. Given, J’onn J’onzz’s little library corner was far from being the dreary interrogation rooms Linda was used to, but the ice in her tone was enough for Kara to wince. It made her smile.

“You’ve seen the way I look at Lena,” she said quietly. There was a hesitance to her voice, like she was admitting a heavy sin to a priest. Linda tried not to snort. 

“I’m sure all of America has seen the way you look at Lena.” _ And the way she looks at you. _

Kara chewed on her lower lip, thumbs fiddling together. The sight was unbearably vulnerable. “I’ve _ tried _ to tell her. About me being Supergirl, or about my feelings— but whenever I try, I keep getting stuck on one secret over the other, and then suddenly I can’t say _ anything, _and—”

“Do all Americans keep this many secrets?” Linda asked. She was genuinely concerned. 

Kara gave her a smile, though it failed to reach the twinkle in her eyes. “Well, I’m not exactly from here, am I?” she joked.

Linda grew quiet. She tapped the side of her face with a finger and motioned for Kara to continue silently. 

“It’ll be more genuine, yeah, but all you have to do is tell her that I like her. That’s it.” Kara took a deep breath, but the rattle in her chest gave her anxiety away. “Then we could do a quick swap and I’ll— uh— elaborate on it. And then your work would be done.”

“What’s in it for me?” Linda failed to see the point of the entire mission. The way Kara and Lena looked at each other, how synchronized the two were— she thought, just by the way this girl was writing about Lex’s younger sister, that they were lovers. Americans were weird, she decided. Or maybe they weren’t, and Kara Danvers was just the stupid twin of the two.

“Chocolate.” The word made Linda perk up in an instant. Kara sensed her excitement and beamed proudly. “Lots of it.” 

_ “Really?” _ She cleared her throat and forced her excitement downwards. She took back her cool demeanor and said, “I will sleep on it.”

Kara laughed joyfully at her words. It sounded relieved. “It’ll be better the sooner you do it,” she admitted. “There’s a gala tonight, actually. I was thinking that you could maybe fly over to her apartment and tell her there?”

Linda scrunched her eyebrows together. “Kara, would you like to hear a Kaznian proverb?”

Confused, Kara said, “Sure?”

_ “Ты ведешь себя как Иванушка дурачок из историй, которые я слышал в детстве.” _

“I _ really _hope you know I can’t—”

“You act like Ivan the Idiot from the stories I heard as a child," she said matter-of-factly. “I’ll help you tonight, but—!” She pointed a finger menacingly in Kara’s direction, as having to predict the sudden jump and twinkle in Kara’s face. “Double the chocolate.”

  
Kara tried not to grin too much. “Of course.”

“Secondly,” she declared, poking her finger on Kara’s knee, “you are the biggest idiot for cowering.”

“You wouldn’t be saying that if you were the one in love with her.”

She cocked her head to the side in sweet innocence. “We’re fundamentally the same person, Kara Danvers.” She will admit that she had a slight infatuation with the younger Luthor herself. But one glance at the way Kara reacted to anything relating to Lena was a dead giveaway to her love. It went beyond a crush, beyond how every man grazed her body the first time she was met at Kaznia’s borders.

If she could somehow help Kara get together with Lex’s younger sister, it was sweet revenge and a victory rolled into one. A slam dunk, a touchdown— whatever people in National City said these days.

“Just don’t actually fall in love with her too,” Kara teased her, pushing gently with her knee. “I don’t want to fight over Lena with my own twin.” She said it jokingly, of course, but there was true apprehension in her voice. 

“I am your match-maker for tonight, nothing more,” Linda assured, accent heavy. Then she straightened up and straightened her glasses, an almost exact reflection of the girl in front of her. She took up a bubbly tone to her voice next, her words no longer accented with a soviet tongue but instead with the clip of an American. “If I could get you, like, totally laid, it’s like a high five to myself, am I right?”

“Hey! I don’t sound like that!”

* * *

The wedgie Kara’s clothes were giving her were _ unmatched _by anything she ever wore. The dark blue dress was tight, but nothing too revealing to give themselves away to Lena. She brought her knee up as far as her can, but Kara pushed it down to the ground with a little glare.

“Don’t rip it, we haven’t even seen her yet,” she whispered accusingly. She was wearing an identical dress to Linda’s, as well as a small pastel purse. 

“How am I supposed to walk in this?” she said distastefully. “You could barely stretch it far enough to make up one flight of stairs.”

“Carefully.” Kara led her to the front doors of a private building. Lena Luthor’s apartment. She lived on the very top floor, and Linda had begged Kara over and over if they could just risk it and fly up. She said no.

When they were in front of the elevator and promptly ignored by the man at the front desk (who was so tired that he only blinked and groaned when he saw Kara and Linda side by side), Kara held her by the shoulders. “You remember the plan, right?”

“As if it was drilled into me seventy-three times on the way here,” she said flatly. Because it was true.

Kara gave her a shrew smile. Something in between politeness, relief, and nervousness. Linda wished Kara had her backbone, because they wouldn’t be here in the first place. But then again, the chocolate… 

“Sit her down. Tell her you need to talk to her. And then say—”

“‘Lena, I like you a lot,’” she recited. She gave Kara a pointed look that said _ see? _ “I don’t understand why I can’t just tell her you’re in _ love _with her. It feels more accurate and attuned to your—”

“Stick to the plan,” Kara said hurriedly. Her cheekbones were turning a faded pink. “Just— whatever she says, tell her you forgot something outside so we can swap out, okay? I’ll deal with it.”

Linda stared at her for a long moment. She didn’t believe a single word Kara was saying. For one thing, they had the same exact tell, which made Linda wonder how thoroughly Kara thought about lying to her actual clone. 

It didn’t matter, really. She was one hundred percent certain that Lena would stammer, go quiet, then confess right back, because there was no way around it. There was nothing to worry about. The flipping in her stomach just meant she was ready for it to get over with, not because she was nervous for Kara. Not at all.

“You can trust me,” she said. She shrugged off Kara’s hands on her shoulders and jerked her head in the direction of the elevators. “Let’s go.”

As planned, the elevator took them up to Lena’s personal floor. As soon as it opened and revealed a set of doors at the end of the short hallway, Kara ducked and squeezed herself into the janitor’s closet. Close enough to hear their conversation, and close enough to quickly switch out when the time was right before Lena could even notice.

Kara flashed her a thumbs up for good luck, and then her smile dropped. She adjusted her glasses, face silently weary, and crossed her arms while watching Linda move away. 

Linda squeezed the purse in her hands. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door lightly, rapping it three times in quick succession. The soft jazz on the other side of the door became much quieter, though it stayed playing. In two heartbeats, the familiar clacking of heels were coming closer to Linda’s direction.

It was utterly familiar, and Linda was instantly thrown to the day she first met Lena. All cutting edges and straight backs, a practiced smile that seemed to melt away to softness when she caught Linda’s eyes. That was the only time Linda was truly jealous of something Kara had that she didn’t. Someone who undoubtedly loved her, who lit up in her very presence and said her name like a believer’s worship.

She would rather face seven pounds of kryptonite than admit to Kara that she was doing this to secure the love in Kara’s life. 

The door clicked open. “Lena!” she said happily, no trace of her Kaznian blood in the way she stood or said her name. 

Lena stood there in her dress, her hair only half straightened. Behind her was a plugged-in straightener, left propped against a shiny figurine on the desk. “Kara,” Lena said, just as happily, “I wasn’t expecting you for another twenty minutes. Not that I’m complaining— you’re quite easy on the eyes, hmm?”

“Sorry.” She smiled apologetically, laughing genuinely under her breath, and gave Lena a friendly side hug. “I could leave if you want me to. I didn’t think you were in the middle of something.”

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous. You know you’re always welcomed here,” Lena reprimanded. She stepped aside to let Linda inside, her eyes never leaving the blonde curls over her shoulder. Before Linda could come all the way in, she glanced over her shoulder, even though she knew it was useless to do. 

“So, what got you so excited to see me before the gala?” Lena teased her, striding over to the straightener she left on the desk. She sat down and got back to work, though she watched Linda from the mirror.

  
Linda stood behind her with crossed arms, suddenly feeling a little hot underneath the armpits. She didn’t know why she felt so awkward. Any word she said wouldn’t be held against her. “You, actually,” she said truthfully, pairing her words with a dazzling smile.

It seemed to work. Lena smiled back at her, eyes ducking back to her straightener. “Well, you know I’m always happy to help with your articles, Kara.”

“Oh! No, um—” Linda poked her glasses back up her nose, forcing a laughter out of her system. She tried her best to channel her inner Kara, who from her experience and research, was a klutz with a tendency to be even clumsier around Lena Luthor. If she was being honest, she didn’t even have to act most of it. “I was hoping to talk to you. About… something. Before the gala. If, if that’s um, okay?”

“Of course it’s okay.” Lena turned her hip to look at her, her fingers still combing through her hair as she worked her way down with the hot straightener. Linda’s eyes never left the glossy hair. “Whatever you need from me.”

Linda cleared her throat again. Real embarrassment flamed her face, though she tried to cool it down by readjusting her eyes to look at the jewels set out on Lena’s desk. So sue her for having a crush on Lena— half of National City did, she was sure of it. “I could ask you tomorrow, if that’s more convenient,” she blurted out. It felt like something Kara would say.

When Lena split into a grin and started laughing, she knew she made the right call to say it. “I’m sure Jess could handle the press without me for a while longer,” she said, stretching over her desk to prop an elbow on the smooth wood. Her eyes never left Linda’s face. 

It was now or never. When her weight started shifting from foot to foot and she was trying to formulate the correct words in her head, Linda felt something cold run down her back. She broke out into a sweatless panic. She had no right to be tense, but her empathy for Kara Danvers was more than she could handle. 

The way Lena was looking at her wasn’t helping. She could finally see why Kara would abandon ship every time she came close to confessing.

“I like you,” she said abruptly. She couldn’t ease Lena into it, she decided. Honesty was the best policy. “A lot. As— as something more than friends. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and I've been wanting to tell you for a while now, and today I thought that I could finally… tell you, you know?” She exhaled heavily, putting her hands on her hips. Then she shrugged at Lena’s blank expression, as if she was struggling to say anything else. Her heart was drumming incessantly at her chest.

“You like me?” Lena asked precariously.

“I do. A lot.”

“Kara,” Lena said, her shoulders drooping. Her apprehensive look turned into a relieved smile, and she embraced Linda in a hug that could’ve been bone-crushing if she wasn’t Kryptonian. Linda hugged her back in an instant. “You have no idea how happy that makes me.”

  
  
“R— really?” she stammered out, back to her Kara personality. She adjusted her glasses again, looking at Lena with a mix of real wonder and surprise. “You like me too?”

“You’re my favourite person, Kara. I couldn’t imagine myself liking _ anyone _else,” Lena cooed. She held one of Linda’s hands in her own. Linda couldn’t help but wonder how many heart attacks Kara was having in the janitor’s closet right now. “That’s why I’m so glad we’re taking this to the next step.”

“And what— what step is that?” she asked with a small smile, once again adjusting her glasses. If you’re Kara Danvers, fiddling with glasses was just a given. 

“Don’t play dumb. You know what I mean,” Lena said with a wagging finger. She smiled and let go of Linda’s hand, turning back to face her mirror to make adjustments to her hair. “We’re best friends now.”

“We’re—” Linda couldn’t tell if the stopped heartbeat she was hearing was her own or Kara’s through the thick walls. “Weren’t we already best friends?” she asked, slightly baffled. If Kara was looking at her like _ that _and they weren’t even close friends to begin with, Linda had to reevaluate American customs.

“That’s what I was hoping for.” Lena craned her neck to catch her eye for a second, smiling dutifully at her. “But you just made it official. And I’m so happy you did.”

“I am too,” Linda said weakly. She licked her lips and scratched at her brain to recapture her words. The cooing in Lena’s voice sounded like she was mocking her, or just playing a simple joke. Yet Lena kept silently straightening her hair, humming under her breath to the words of the jazz singer on her record player, posture relaxed and shoulders slumped. Maybe Linda was seeing things. 

“Was that all you came for, Kara?” Lena said again, putting her straightener down for a second to talk to her. “I wouldn’t mind having a drink with you before—”

“No, that’s fine,” Linda cut off. She grinned in hopes of seeming natural and unshaken. “I, uh, need to meet up with Alex there. See you tomorrow?”

“A drink for next time then,” Lena said, sounding genuinely disappointed. Linda tried not to flinch back her regret. But there was also something else to her tone. A bit of a lilt. She just couldn’t place it right now.

With one last goodbye hug, Linda was striding out of the door with squared shoulders. 

She met Kara in the elevator, the pair quiet up until they were out onto the street. Without turning, Kara said to her, “… she thought you were you were there to confess that I thought of her as a best friend?”

“Seemed like it.” Linda glanced at her with an amused smirk. “I could try and be more forward next time.”

Kara seemed to catch on. She only sighed. “Almond or milk chocolate?”

“You must be an amateur. The answer is both.”

* * *

“Next time” came in the form of next week. The day after the first failed confession, Kara couldn’t take it anymore. She took Lena by the hands at brunch and led her out into a dark alleyway, then showed her who she truly was. Lena was shell-shocked for a while, before taking her superhero confession in stride to continue their brunch. There was some tension between the two for _weeks_, but once it quickly disintegrated, Kara was jumping back on her plans.

Linda only wished Lena figured out Kara’s _ other _secret much quicker than the former.

She was in Kara’s Supergirl costume, a tight pair of spandex that itched everywhere that touched her skin. She scratched at her arm with a wrinkled nose, looking up into Kara’s amused eyes. “This better be worth it,” she warned.

“It’ll only take a couple minutes,” Kara assured. Linda didn’t point out that she said the same thing the last time.

Sighing, she stopped scratching. Their new plan was a bit more complex than last time. Linda was supposed to come see Lena at her balcony, then recite as many Shakespearean quotes as she could and confess her undying love for the other woman at the end. As it turns out, Linda knows far more Shakespeare than Kara and an English college professor combined. Kara obviously wanted to take advantage of it.

Kara patted her on the back good-naturedly and sent her off, staying on the lower floor of L-Corp to stay close by, but not too close. It was a cowardly move, something that she would surely be reprimanded with back home, but she chose not to say anything. She can’t really insult herself.

She floated gently close to the lip of Lena’s balcony. She thought about it for a second, before making a quick second decision when Lena twirled around in her office chair and spotted her with a gracious smile. Linda stayed floating where she was. 

“But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?” she said, her voice light with a pleasant Shakespearean accent. “Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon.”

Lena seemed to appreciate the gesture. She crossed her arms over her railing, the side of her lips quirked up in masked amusement. “You skipped a line, Supergirl,” she purred.

  
“Did I?” Linda smiled gently at her. “Oops.” Truth be told, she didn’t mean to do it on purpose. Shakespeare wasn’t her most favorite thing to read. She was more of an Aldous Huxley person. And to be quite frank, the famed balcony scene was too… mushy for her. 

“I’ll be honest, Kara, I’m not really a Romeo and Juliet girl,” Lena told her, half shrugging with a smile. She looked a bit guilty, as if she wasn’t hoping to crush Kara’s spirits.

If anything, it made Linda a little relieved. She flew closer to Lena, but not enough to touch her. Lena’s eyes were dead set on her, zeroed in with an affection that Linda had never seen on a person before. “What are you into then?” she asked excitedly. When Lena quirked an eyebrow, she continued, “Much Ado About Nothing? Macbeth? A Midsummer Night’s Dream?”

“I don’t think reciting a Scottish play to me would be ideal in this situation, don’t you?” Lena said with a chuckle.

Linda shrugged. “Well, if you’re going to be so superstitious about it, probably not.”

“You can’t ever be too safe.”

“Ironic coming from you,” she teased. 

Lena laughed hard at that. When she took a moment to breathe, she blinked and her eyes were trained again on Linda. “Why are you really here?” she asked, only kindness oozing from her voice. 

“To romance you.” There was no point in _ not _being blunt. Once that was out of the way, and the romance part was finally in the air, she made her point to make her final exit. “Could you excuse me for a second? I think I dropped something.”

“Oh, I… sure.”

Linda sped down L-Corp in an instant. When she met back with Kara, her twin’s eyes were wide with panic. “Already?” she whispered harshly. 

Linda tried not to roll her eyes. “You heard the entire thing. Why are you so surprised?” she shot back. She wondered if anyone could see two Supergirls arguing back and forth. “Get up there already! Your damsel’s waiting.”

  
“First of all—”

“_Сукин сын, _ just go!”

“Alright, _ jeez! _Who knew I could be so bossy.”

Supergirl, the _ real _Supergirl, finally burst into the air. Linda watch her leave, slumping her shoulder against a concrete pole. She closed her eyes and listened hard, trying to pinpoint out of the million sounds she was hearing for a familiar voice. 

“Lena, hey!” Even with all of their subtlety coaching, Kara still managed to sound more croaky than a toad in water. “Sorry, I was— um— trying to find my hair pin.”

“Yeah,” Lena said. She sounded hesitant. Linda wanted to slam her face against the wall. “You said something before you left.”

“Yeah,” Kara mimicked, laughing nervously. The brief pause either meant Kara was doing her ridiculous power pose or this was just how the two acted. “Look, Lena, the other night before your gala, I um… I wasn’t trying to tell you I thought of you as a best friend.”

“You don’t?” Lena sounded genuinely disappointed. “Oh.”

Kara backtracked so hard that Linda could imagine the skid marks she left behind. “No, no! That’s not what I meant! I see us as _ friends, _ I really do, and I love being friends with you and I think— I just really— I really wanna be _ more. _More than best friends. If that’s… that’s what you want.”

“More than best friends,” Lena repeated. She paused, mulling it over in her head, most likely. Linda was holding her breath, and to Kara’s silence, she probably was too. “_Oh. _ So you… think of me like that?”

“Yes.” Kara breathed out the word with so much relief that Linda was surprised she didn’t start falling to the ground next to her like a leaf from a tree. 

And, before Linda could loosen the breath held in her own chest, Kara messed it up. Again. “Hey, I think I dropped another hair pin, could youjustexcusemeforasecond?”

Then Kara was right beside her, eyes wide and strands of hair sticking out from her usually perfect blonde locks like she was caught wrestling a grizzly bear. “What are you _ doing_?” Linda said, her voice close to an exasperated shout.

“Get up there. I can’t do it.”

“What? Why?”

“You don’t get it,” Kara groaned, hands carding through her hair. “She was smiling at me, and talking to me like _ that, _ and I couldn’t— just _ go, _please.”

“You. Are a _ дура._” But she flew back up anyway. And when she came back, face to face with Lena Luthor, she wanted to come back down again and slap Kara’s hand and tag her back in. Lena’s flashy smile was back on her face the moment she saw Linda.

“Kara, sweetheart, why didn’t you just lead with that?” Lena cooed. “That you wanted more than a best friend?”

“Well, I—” Linda stuttered. She shut her mouth like a mouse trap and restarted. “I tried. You can’t really blame me for trying. Does that mean you…?”

“That I want the same thing as you?” Lena smiled happily at her. “Of course I do. ‘Friendship is constant in all other things, save in the office and affairs of love.’ Do you want to know why that’s one of my favorite quotes, Kara?”

“Why?”

“Because we have a _ remarkable _friendship.” Lena’s smile was still as bright as ever on her face. “You never ask me for money, and we joke around like we’re a married couple, but we get through it all the same. I love you a lot for that.”

Linda tried her best to hide her complete bewilderment. 

When she came back to Kara on the floor five minutes later, Kara was just as baffled as she was. “She thought all of that was friendly _ banter_?” she said, almost blowing Linda’s ear off. 

“Watch it.” She hit Kara with her elbow lightly, rubbing at her ear. “You need more firepower than confessing your little feelings. She’s a girl of taste— if I’ve learned anything from my Alex, it’s that his family doesn’t settle for cheap things.”

“So you think she’s doing this on purpose? Because I’m not ‘wooing’ her enough?” Kara looked hesitant.

“Sure, if that’s how you want to put it.” Linda gave her a pointed look. Even in the dark of the night, she could see traces of wrinkles in Kara’s face as she scrunched up her nose and brow, looking in complete thought. “Just so you know, if you want me involved, I would need more bribery material.”

“Yeah, okay,” Kara said distractedly. “Just… help me think of a plan on the way home.”

Linda grinned. “How do you feel about guitars and singing?”

“Singing what?”

“Oh, I’m not sure, most likely _ not _a love song,” she said sarcastically. “I was thinking something along the lines of singing about her breasts?”

* * *

They got to work immediately after that. After the balcony incident, Linda borrowed a guitar from James and sought out to teach Kara how to play. It turned out that it didn’t take very long, since Kara had done some casual playing in college. The only hard part about it was convincing Kara to sing. 

  
When the day finally came and Linda did her usual switch out routine of playing a rocking riff on the acoustic and immediately announcing mid-song that she forgot her favorite pick, Kara sang her song. 

When it was over, Lena clapped her hands loudly and kept saying, “Brava!” over and over. She kissed both of Kara’s cheeks, and Linda, who was watching from the safety of the building across the street, was sure that she would melt into the sofa’s cracks. 

The only problem was that Lena thought Kara was singing it because Kara knew it was her favorite song to sing in the shower. No romantic connotations whatsoever.

Frustrated, Kara jumped over the metaphorical cliff and spiraled. She hung up a cork board in her apartment and left red string all around it, connecting it from sticky note to sticky note about the best way to confess to Lena. When Alex saw it, fresh out of work with a coffee cup in her hand, she only lifted her eyebrow and left the apartment without another word.

Their next plan of attack was to overflow Lena’s office with flowers. Not just any flower, but red _ roses. _The most romantic thing in the book. Since both Linda and Kara were underpaid employees, they made use of their powers and traveled to Canada to gather as many roses as they could. 

Meanwhile, Linda sat in the comfort of Kara’s bedroom while Kara and Lena chatted just next door, empty cups of chocolate pudding on the desk and a fresh one in her hands. She listened in intently, guilty to admit that Kara’s love life was like watching a well-made soap opera. 

“Was it payback for the time I virtually did the same thing with you?” Lena said in amusement, laughing softly when Kara snorted her answer.

“But… um, actually, it wasn’t _ just _because of that,” Kara said. She shifted on the couch and Linda could only assume she was ducking her head and adjusting her glasses again. Linda sat on the edge of Kara’s bed, suddenly more interested in the conversation. She shoveled more pudding into her mouth.

“Oh? What is it?” Lena said, her interest just as piqued. 

“Um…” Kara cleared her throat. “One second, I need to use the bathroom.” And then she was at her bedroom door, heaving slightly and eyes wide. 

_ “Again?” _ Linda dropped the licked spoon from her mouth. “You know the bathroom is in the _ other _direction, right?”

“So?!” Kara threw her arms up in the air. “I don’t care how many pudding cups you want me to buy tonight. Can you just _ please—_?”

“Fine.” 

She dropped her pudding cup unceremoniously on the bedside table, Kara laying down on her bed with her elbow swung over her eyes. Linda rolled her eyes and came out of the room, patting down her jeans with an apologetic smile in Lena’s direction. It was only a coincidence that she and Kara were wearing the same thing. 

“Hey, sorry about that,” she said apologetically, chuckling with Lena. “I meant bedroom, not bathroom. I thought I left my, um, oven on. In the bedroom. Because I have an oven in the bedroom.”

“Knowing you, I wouldn’t doubt it.” Lena scooted over to let Linda sit beside her. Linda crossed her legs on the couch. “So what was the other reason that you were so gracefully telling me about until you thought the oven wasn’t plugged off?”

The mirth in Lena’s eyes made Linda feel a little uneasy. She couldn’t place why. “I like you, as more than a super best friend,” Linda declared. She shook her hands out in front of her to play the nervous-wreck-of-a-confessor part. “I want to hold your hand when we go out on kombucha dates. I want our brunch dates to be more than platonic. I want _ you, _Lena.”

Lena rested her head on the backside of the couch. Her mirthful smile turned down a little, not from the corners of her lips, but by the color in her eyes. It seemed almost wistful, in a way. “You know, Lex said something to me once. Do you want to know what he told me?”

Linda tried not to flinch at the mention of his name. “Of course.”

“‘A spoken word is not a sparrow. Once it flies out, you can’t catch it.’” The look in Lena’s eyes became a bit happier then, when she noticed the flicker of recognition in Linda’s eyes before she flitted her eyes away to hide it. It was a Russian saying. “I’m mentioning it now because you can’t take back what you say to me, Kara.”

“I’m not joking.” Linda was a little frustrated, especially after all the failed attempts. Why can’t Lena see that Kara had been trying for weeks to get her attention? “This entire time, I _ swear _I haven’t actually been teasing you, Lena. I’m serious.”

“I know.” Lena squeezed her wrist. 

Linda froze. The way Lena was looking at her a bit different than the few glances she caught from the way Lena looked at Kara. There was still affection written all over her face, but the underlying tones were gone. It wasn’t bleak, no, but less… unguarded. 

“I’m feeling a little tired,” Lena said. She brought her feet back down on the floor, removing her fingers from around Linda’s wrist. Linda watched her quietly. “I’ll be seeing you tomorrow at work, right?”

“I’ll be the first one to greet you,” Linda assured her.

“Good.” Lena gave her a small smile. They hugged, though it felt a little tense around the shoulders. Lena left with one last look at her, and unless her eyes were playing tricks, she also glanced behind her. 

Linda pivoted on her heel after securing the lock on the door. “You can come out now, _ дура._”

“I’m sorry I put you on the spot,” Kara instantly said, her head popping out from the bedroom door. She strode out with a new pudding cup in her head, which Linda took with greedy fingers. “But that was weird, right? I wasn’t just imagining how she said that you?”

“Said what?”

“The… Lex thing.” Kara frowned to herself. “This is a really messy situation. I shouldn’t have roped you into this. I should’ve just told her myself. And, honestly, at this point I think she’s just pretending so I don’t get my heart broken.”

“No.” Kara’s eyebrows jumped up at her words. Linda opened her pudding cup and stuck a finger in the gooey flavor, adding, “Believe me, she’s not doing it to break your heart. She loves you.”

Kara’s eyes looked as sad as a kitten. “Not like that.”

“_Yes, _like that. Come with me.” She crushed the pudding cup and spilled the remains of it into her mouth in one gulp. She dried her hands on a nearby wash cloth and tugged her twin closer to the door. 

  
“Where are we going?”

  
“Your weird American bars.” She only went once in her entire life, after Kara’s kind sister took them all out for a round of drinks, and even though the music was too loud and there were too many American men flirting with her, it was a fun place to be. In fact, it was the only place on Earth that felt like it was better to be rowdier than tamed. 

They were at a bar within ten minutes. And within those ten minutes, Linda declared that the two of them would have the strongest alien drink they had. The bartender glanced between their identical faces and only shrugged, coming around the back to get their order.

“Why are we here?” Kara asked her over the loud music and the shouts of a nearby party. She was asking Linda nonstop about her intentions, but Linda refused to answer them until they were settled in. 

The bartender slid them two large cups. Linda took a brief moment to take a sip of it, before slamming it down on the table and facing her twin with a blank look. “I need you to feel brave. At least for tonight,” she said with her brusque accent, feeling like she just let her hair down after a long day of speaking like an American.

Kara still seemed confused. “What for?”

“So you could have a _ taste _ of that power,” Linda announced. She waved a hand and took another sip of her drink. Kara had barely touched hers. “I know you feel like Supergirl is your only source of power. But I know that’s not true. Lena Luthor is your second kryptonite and that _ cripples _your potential and confidence. But unlike kryptonite, you can overcome this.”

Kara, rocked slightly by her speech, took a swig of her drink. She grimaced with the burn it provided in her throat, but there was a half smile on her face as she set it down on the counter. When Linda only stared blankly, Kara took another swig, completely emptying the cup with a satisfied sigh afterwards. 

Linda pounded her on the back. “That’s it!” she exclaimed. She pinned the bartender over with a raised hand and asked for two more cups, ignoring Kara’s protests. 

Three full cups of alien beer later, Kara was tipsier than a sleepy cow. 

The music seemed to feel fuller in Linda’s ears, tickling her ears with the hum of the speakers. She raised Kara’s spirits up even more by pushing her towards a group of aliens to play a round of arm wrestling and no stakes poker. With each passing win, Kara was obviously becoming more and more loose. By the third hour into their night, her hair bun was gone and replaced by sloppy hair pins, dull blonde hair sticking to her temples and forehead. She looked like a hot garbage mess.

“How are you feeling?” Linda asked her, voice loud over the folk music playing in the corner.

“Great! Great!” Kara responded, her goofy grin seeming just as sluggish as her words. She was holding a fifth cup of beer in her hands. “I feel… like Supergirl.”

“That’s because you’ve never stopped being her, _ Иванушка Дурачок_,” Linda said snidely. She took a brief sip of her drink and continued. “So do you feel brave?”

“The bravest,” Kara agreed. She didn’t seem to catch on to what was happening. Linda wondered if her eyelids could fall off from rolling her eyes so much.

“Confident?”

“Bold as a lion,” Kara declared.

Linda tilted her head to the side. “So you feel… daring?”

“Yes!”

“Then stand up on your bar stool and tell the entire bar how much you love Lena Luthor.”

Kara whipped her head towards her so fast that Linda swore she heard a crack. “What? _ Why? _What—”

“You told me you were brave.” Linda narrowed her eyes at her reflective twin. She drummed her fingers on the table, eyes staring deep into Kara’s features. There was fear written all over it, but not as much as there would be if she wasn’t so tipsy. Good. “Or are you as bold as the Cowardly Lion?”

Kara groaned, sliding her body over the bar table with her head resting on her elbow. She still had her fingers clutched around the glass. “Why?” she asked, eyes looking up at Linda.

“Because I said so,” Linda said matter-of-factly. “And you need help.”

“Help making Lena see how much I like her, _not _the entire bar!”

Linda leaned closer to her. “Then you are a coward.”

Kara’s eyes narrowed. “No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.”

“No, I’m not.”

“_Y__es, _you are.”

“No, I’m not!”

“Then stop being such a child and do it!” Linda slammed her glass on the table to make Kara jump. It worked. “Don’t you ever look at her and think that you would yell to the world that you love her? Do you not love her, Kara? You have the chance to yell it into the skies right now and you won’t take it. What do you think that says about you? Because to me, it looks as if you don’t—”

“I _ like _Lena Luthor,” Kara said, defiant in tone. She sat up straighter in her seat, hand still tight around her beer. The look in her eyes were steely in nature— Supergirl in essence. Linda forced back a grin. “I like Lena Luthor!” she said louder.

Linda clinked her glass with hers. “Oh, I know,” she mused, licking the remains of alcohol on her lips, “but do they? Or are you just too afraid to admit it to them too?”

“No, _ hell _no,” Kara responded, tone even with steel. She tipped her head backwards and drank the rest of her drink without so much as a blink and a grimace. When she slammed her cup back on the table, she wasted no time to spring up and balance herself on the bar stool. She clapped her hands together, loudly.

Linda kept sipping her beer. She was doing this to help Kara, sure, but it was also very, _ very _entertaining.

“Hey, you! Yeah, you!” Kara pointed aggressively at a young man, who pointed at himself with a confused look. Paired with Kara’s post-drunk slur and her loud words, it was a sight to behold. “Did you know I love Lena Luthor?!”

“Congrats?” the man said.

Kara nodded her approval vigorously. Some people were turning to look and stare, but most were too used to drunk shenanigans to really care about a blonde-haired chick standing on a bar stool. Clearly, Kara realized it. “I LOVE LENA LUTHOR AND I’M NOT AFRAID TO—”

She stumbled on her bar stool. When she steadied herself and repositioned her feet, there was a loud “Yeah!” from the side. The bar burst into loud cheers at her confession, and Kara bathed in it with hands on her hips and a beaming smile that rivaled Supergirl’s on TV. 

Linda pulled her back down. She was laughing so hard that her shoulders were shaking with the effort. “We must get you drunk more often,” she hollered. She laughed again when she realized that Kara’s face was a pink tomato. 

“Oh _ Rao, _if someone video-taped that and Alex saw it—” she bemoaned.

“If I had my hands on a phone, I would have sent it to her myself,” Linda announced proudly. She waved the bartender over. Instead of another glass of beer, she asked for two water bottles. Kara groaned quietly in her hands beside her. Linda pounded her back.

“See?” she said, a satisfied smirk on her lips. “If you can say it in front of everyone, you could say it to her.”

Kara dropped her head. “I still can’t.”

“You promised me you would tell the world you love Lena Luthor. Is she not your world?”

“No,” Kara admitted. She kept her head hung, tapping the sides of her glass of water. “She’s my entire universe.”

Linda softened at the edges. She rubbed Kara’s back in tiny strokes. “I feel as if I met your drunk self first, we would’ve been better friends.”

Kara chuckled at that. She craned her neck to look at Linda, her eyes a bit glossy from the alcohol. She pursed her lips. “Alex said that Lena’s almost done with the tech.”

Linda kept rubbing circles on her back. It wasn’t really a surprise, given how smart she was. Plus, most of the technology was already invented for her— provided by the time Samantha Arias needed to be separated from her more unpleasant alter ego. Linda didn’t feel anything at the news. If anything, she felt almost… comforted by it.

“I can’t go anywhere until I get you your girl.” Linda tossed her a water bottle. “What’s your next plan?”

* * *

As it turns out, her next plan consisted of more ridiculous romantic gestures. 

She asked her to fly up in the air and form the clouds to read “I Heart Lena Luthor”. And then she would tug Lena out to the balcony and proclaim her undying love and then switch out with Kara so Kara could get the brunt of Lena’s reaction.

Again, Lena just hugged her tightly and told her that it was an amazing gesture for a good friend to give her. “How did you know I was having a bad day?” she said into Kara’s shoulder. Linda was watching from afar, her palm striking her forehead with the force of a thousand suns. “The press was killing me out there.”

The last straw was when Linda took it upon herself to make it right. She barged into Lena’s office with a bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolates, then told her promptly that she wanted to ask Lena to be her girlfriend. 

“Weren’t we already girlfriends, Kara?” Lena said innocently, batting her eyelashes. “We’ve been gal pals since we first met.”

Linda marched out of her office with a red face. She faced Kara on the first floor with a mouth that closed and opened like a blubbering fish. 

They went to the bar soon after that.

There, they lifted each other’s spirits with alcohol and karaoke. It also doubled as their last day together, considering that the tech to merge them back together was in its final steps. By tomorrow morning, Linda Lee will be back into Kara Danvers. 

It was bittersweet and full of heartfelt discussions, but Linda couldn’t be more glad to go. But there was only one problem. 

Her last wish was for Kara and Lena to just _ get together already, _ and it hasn’t _ happened. _ “Americans,” she slurred, “are _ idiots._”

“I swear she’s just doing it on purpose,” Kara mumbled. The side of her face was stuck to the sticky table. She didn’t seem to care nor mind. “She’s smart. She could play chess with her eyes closed— and I’ve seen her do it! There’s no way she’s not getting what we’re trying to tell her.”

Her solemn tone made Linda want to slap her. “She loves you a lot,” she said to the table. Her chin was in the palm of her hand. It kept lolling to the side, due to the swaying of the alcohol. “More than you could see. I just don’t get why she’s trying to deny it.”

“Because she doesn’t like me like that,” Kara grumbled. “You know, I’m more than fine with staying best friends with her. I’m not doing this to force her to be with me. So, if she’s gonna play naive just so she won’t hurt me, I’ll take the hint—”

“I’d rather throw you into a pit of grizzly bears.” Linda smacked her hard on the neck. Kara yelped. “She _ loves _you. Why can’t you understand that?”

Before Kara could open her mouth to respond, her phone vibrated with a text. She only glanced down at it for a split second. Her lips turned down in a bigger frown. “The tech’s ready.”

“Finally,” Linda joked. “I could put this soap opera to rest.”

On their way to the DEO, Linda formulated a plan. One last hurrah, per se. She’ll stand where she’s supposed to be, then turn to look at Lena, and give a heartfelt speech about how many times she had to bear witness to Kara’s open-mouthed staring of her— 

  
“Kara?”

“Yeah?” They landed on the deck of the DEO. 

Linda crossed her arms over her chest. “Lena. She knows about me, yes?”

Kara looked a little baffled. “Uh, yeah. Of course she does.”

_ Американцы глупые. _

“So, if she knows you have a twin that can speak like you, and act like you,” Linda started, drawling out her words slowly as if she was speaking to a child, “she must know at some point on how to differentiate us. Yes?”

“Yes—? Oh.” Kara’s face dropped. Linda could hear the clacking of heels drawing closer to them. _“Oh.”_

Every little thing that was bothering Linda was starting to realign itself in the galaxy. The way Lena somehow acted more guarded around _ her, _not Kara— the way Lena quoted Lex about choosing to say certain things.

She knew they were switching places.

“Supergirl,” Lena said pleasantly. Her eyes drew over to Linda, who was sporting a DEO jumpsuit. “Linda. Are you two ready?”

“You knew?” Kara blurted out. Linda jabbed her elbow into her side.

“Of course I did.” Lena smiled at them. There was a twinkle in her emerald eyes, a cross between amusement and delight. Linda wanted to drop to her feet. “Did you really think I didn’t?”

“No, but—” Kara stammered.

“Supergirl!” J’onn popped his head out from the other room. “Everything’s set up.”

The entire time Brainy and Alex were hooking them up to certain tubes and gadgets, Linda could see Kara staring at Lena out of the corner of her eye. Lena would glance back every now and then, a smile blossoming on her features. It was sickeningly sweet, and Linda had to refrain herself from kicking Kara closer to her. It was _ torture. _

“Thirty seconds,” Alex called out to them. She looked over at Linda. “Is there anything you want to say?”

“Other than the fact that Kara was a pain? No, unfortunately,” she said with a sniff. It made their little group chuckle. Kara punched her arm lightly. Her eyes were a little misty with tears. Linda wasn’t having any of that. “Actually, I think I do.”

“Really?” Kara said. Her eyebrows shot up in surprise.

“Really.” Linda jerked her head in Lena’s direction. Just because she had twenty seconds left on this Earth doesn’t mean she couldn't leave a lasting mark. “Are you free tomorrow evening for coffee, Lena? Two p.m.?”

“I— yes, I am.” Lena had stopped fiddling with a tablet to look at her. A perfect Luthor eyebrow was arched in her direction, a question in of itself. She could even feel Kara staring a hole into her temple. 

“Good! Because I’m not, but Kara is. Aren’t you, Kara?” 

“What?” Kara looked flabbergasted. 

“She is,” Linda confirmed, turning back to Lena. Ten seconds. “Stop dancing around each other like two stalks of corn. It’s clear you two want to do more than hug.”

“Linda!” Kara was steadily turning red-faced. 

“That is all I have to say.” She hit Kara’s shoulder. “_до свидания, _ friend.”

“Linda?” 

She looked over at the younger Luthor. She was smiling wearily at Linda, her tablet still close to her chest. Linda gave her a small smile. 

_ “большое спасибо,” _Lena said to her.

There was no strike of pain, no sudden flash behind her eyelids. There was no pinprick of sensations evident on her body. 

When Kara blinked twice, Linda was no longer sitting beside her. 

“How are you feeling?” Alex said gently.

“Like nothing happened.” Kara looked down at her hands. She didn’t know what she was expecting, really. Maybe a trace of Linda, even something small. “But, um…” She cleared her throat and forced herself to look at Lena.

When her eyes locked onto Lena’s, every wallowing emotion in her body was swept away. She felt calm, even hushed underneath her gaze. Her heart hiccuped in her chest. 

“Do you think you’ve retained anything from Linda?” Lena asked her. She was tapping away on a tablet, eyes now glued to the flying numbers around the screen. “Anything at all? Memories, emotional connections…?”

Kara opened her mouth. She was going to answer no, but something stopped. In the corner of her mind, she could feel something itching at her. 

“I think I can speak Russian,” she said absentmindedly.

Alex, Brainy, and Lena were gawking at her. 

“What— what can you say?” Alex asked her. She cleared her throat and wiped off the surprise from her face.

Kara shrugged. Even if Alex asked her to say something in Kryptonian, it wasn’t like she could conjure a sentence to say from thin air. She needed prodding. 

When she glanced back at Lena, with her scrunched eyebrows looking at her tablet and the jutted lip in concentration, she got her nudge to speak. 

_“я люблю тебя.”_

Startled, Lena looked up at her. Kara didn’t look away. 

When Kara’s confidence was trying to ebb away, Lena started to smile. She put down her tablet and came over to her, planting a soft kiss on her forehead before tugging away a cord from her forehead. “Well, that’s one way to make use of a new language,” Lena said with a chuckle. 

Brainy took Lena’s tablet. “I guess even when she’s not here, Linda Lee is a… tenacious one,” he said. Alex snorted.

Kara couldn’t help but laugh. When everything was untangled from her temples and forehead, she jumped up. Lena was beside her, still bustling around to put things away. Kara didn’t stop looking at her. “Hey,” she said casually. Lena’s eyes moved over to her. She crossed her arms and hoped her smile wasn’t as wobbly as it felt. “So… coffee tomorrow?”

  
  
“No switching out for dropped hair pins this time?” she asked, mirth in her eyes. 

“No,” Kara confirmed. She crossed her heart over her chest. “It’ll just be me, I promise.”

“Good.” Lena touched her arm lightly. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

Kara smiled softly at her. “I was thinking about getting dinner after that,” she said, feeling the skin where Lena had grazed come to life with warm crackles. “There’s this great Russian restaurant near your building. I could pick you up at seven, if you’re free?”

“Always.”

Later that night, Kara ordered two plates of chocolate pudding. They clinked spoons together and laughed, before digging into their desserts and chatting about their crazy days. 

**Author's Note:**

> Сукин сын = son of a bitch  
дура = idiot  
Иванушка Дурачок = Ivan the Idiot  
Американцы глупые = Americans are stupid  
до свидания = goodbye  
большое спасибо = thank you so much  
я люблю тебя = I love you
> 
> Throw some Russian tomatoes at me in the comments or my Tumblr, @cosmiccaptain


End file.
